ProxBi

Build a server with multiple GPU-powered virtual machines — perfect for families, classrooms, and homelab enthusiasts. I personally used it for a server for my 3 kids so I do not have to buy a separate PC for each of them and learn something new - in the end it was a successful and interesting project.

---

Table of Contents

1. Overview
2. Features
3. Hardware Requirements
4. Quick / Automated Start
5. Setup Instructions
6. Parental Controls
7. Templates & Scripts
8. Demo & Video
9. Support & Sponsorship
10. Tests & Benchmarks
11. Bonus

---

Overview

ProxBi helps you convert one powerful server into multiple independent desktops for gaming, learning, or productivity. Each user gets their own GPU-powered VM accessible via thin clients or remote desktop.

One Server vs Separate Server per User

Feature / Factor	One Server + Thin Clients	Separate Server per User
Hardware Cost	Lower — shared components (MB, CPU, PSU, case) reduce overall cost	Higher — each user needs a full system
GPU Allocation	Multiple GPUs passed through to different VMs	Each user requires their own GPU
Noise	Minimal in user rooms — server can be placed in a locker, basement, or dedicated room	High — each system produces its own noise
Power Consumption	Lower — single system with shared components	Higher — many separate systems
Maintenance	Centralized updates and monitoring	More effort — updates and troubleshooting for each system
Space Requirements	Compact — one server, small thin clients	Large — full-sized PCs for each user
Flexibility / Scalability	High — can add VMs or GPUs as needed	Limited — adding new users means buying more hardware
Initial Setup Complexity	Higher — requires knowledge of Proxmox and GPU passthrough	Lower — plug-and-play desktop PCs
User Experience	Thin client latency may be slightly higher, but manageable	Native experience, zero virtualization overhead

Tip: Placing the server in a basement or closet reduces noise in living areas while keeping thin clients quiet and efficient. Shared components like motherboard, PSU, and case save money compared to building full PCs for each user.

---

Features

• Automated scripts for Proxmox and GPU passthrough
• Ready-to-use VM templates for Windows 11
• Optimized performance for gaming, coding, and creative apps
• Multi-user management for family, classroom, or homelab setups
• Troubleshooting tips and configuration guides included
• Demo & Videos

---

Hardware Requirements

Tip: Think about future expansions

Server

You can see our build specs here bellow specifically made for this purpose.

• Case with enough space for all components
  • Fans and airflow to keep it cool
  • noise/quietness grade depending on where the server will be placed
• PSU with enough power
• Motherboard with enough and correct ports/pins
• CPU with IOMMU support and enough cores for each user/VM.
• 1+ GPUs for passthrough. One for each user/VM.
• Sufficient RAM (recommend ≥14GB per user/VM).
• Proxmox VE 9.x compatible server
• Enough storage. Preferable SSD or M2.

Clients

• Thin clients or remote desktop clients for users (mini-PC, laptop, PC, Mac, Mobile etc.)
• Hardware requirements:
  • Anything that would support h264 decoding and 50Mbps network
  • OS: Windows 10/11(recommended), Mac, IOS, Android
  • RAM: 8GB
  • CPU: 2 Cores 2.2GHz

---

Quick or Automated Start

(WIP - proxmox templates or repo for automation of the bellow steps. For now try to follow the guide bellow and keep an eye on updates to this repo.) The details of these automations can be found at Templates & Scripts.

Setup Instructions

Setup server

1. Enable IOMMU / VT-d in BIOS then reboot

2. Install Proxmox on your server

   • Finally, you should be able to access your Proxmox console via browser

3. Create Windows VMs

   • General: give a name and an id to the VM
   • OS: Use an ISO with Win11, guet OS "Microsoft Windows" and select the appropriate version from your ISO. Check the VirtIO drivers and select the appropriate iso for them "virtio drivers"
   • System: select UEFI, Q35 and Graphic card: Default, Quemu Agent - ON, EFI and TPM (choose a storage for them - can be same as the disk)
   • Disks: leave defaults (SCSI)
   • CPU: Sockets 1, Type "host". Cores - give enough Cores you canuse this formula ( TOTAL CORES - 2 for proxmox ) / Number of VMs
   • Memory: give enough RAM. You can use this formula : ( TOTAL RAM - 2GB for proxmox ) / Number of VMs .
   • Network: leave defaults
     
   • Repeat the above stems and create all VMs
   • Connect to the VM from the proxmox console (for now do not worry about missing GPU and bad resolution or lag):
     • Install the VirtIO ISO for network and disk drivers from the inserted virtual CD with virtio.
     • Install virtual audio driver e.g. https://vb-audio.com/Cable/ -> this will allow audio passthrough and you should hear audio now from your VM.
     • (Optional, can be done later) Install Parsec and configure as host (see details in step bellow)

4. Passthrough GPUs to VMs. On the proxmox server cli (either in proxmox console > pve node > terminal or ssh into your server) execute:

   • nano /etc/default/grub and edit the line
     • for Intel GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet intel_iommu=on iommu=pt"
     • for AMD GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet amd_iommu=on iommu=pt"
   • update-grub
   • reboot
   • nano /etc/modules and add these lines if not already present
     • vfio
     • vfio_pci
     • vfio_iommu_type1
     • vfio_virqfd
   • lspci -nn | grep -E "VGA|Audio" and note the ids of the GPU VGA and Audio device pairs of each GPU. Something like 01.00.0 and 01:00.1 also 10de:1f08 and 10de:10f9
   • nano /etc/modprobe.d/vfio.conf and add options vfio-pci ids=10de:1f08,10de:10f9 replace with your ids, add all pairs.
   • nano /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf and add:
     • blacklist nouveau
     • blacklist nvidia
     • blacklist nvidiafb
     • blacklist nvidia_drm
   • update-initramfs -u -k all
   • Repeat this for each VM and GPU pair (VMID is the id you gave your VM upon creation) :
     • nano /etc/pve/qemu-server/<VMID>.conf and add the following lines replacing the ids with your GPU id
       • hostpci0: 01:00.0,pcie=1,x-vga=1
       • hostpci1: 01:00.1
   • reboot
   • In proxmox console you should now see the PCI devices for each VM (do not edit them in the console)
   • Login to VM (using proxmox console or parsec if installed above) and install the GPU driver from the official provider. You should see the GPU in the device manager.

5. Install Parsec and configure as host. For each thin client (mini-pc or laptop) login into VM and then:

   • Download from parsec.app
   • Open and login to parsec. (use separate accounts if you want to separate which VMs each thin client can access)
   • In Parsec settings set it to use at least 50 Mbps bandwidth (max available in free version) and use client resolution

Setup Thin clients

1. If you have no OS on your client yet : install OS. I used Windows 11.
2. Install Parsec on your thin clients
3. Login to your VM via Parsec

Test the setup

Install some games or GPU heavy apps and see how it goes. You can view some stats (no GPU stats) in the proxmox node > Summary

Wake-on-LAN (WoL)

Wake-on-LAN (WoL) is a networking standard that allows a computer to be turned on or woken from a low-power state by a special network message called a "magic packet". To use it, the target computer's motherboard and network adapter must support WoL, and the computer must remain connected to a power source, even when shut down. The feature must also be enabled in the computer's BIOS/UEFI and the network adapter's settings.

1. Enable WoL

   1. from BIOS. Depending on your Motherboard enter BIOS and:
      • enable the option like Power On By PCI-E / PCI
      • and disable ErP Ready (this one cuts power to NIC when server stopped)
   2. in proxmox linux (if not already):
      • ethtool <your-nic> You should see Supports Wake-on: pumbg Wake-on: g if not :
        • edit nano /etc/network/interfaces and add these 2 lines under your interface <your nic>:
          • post-up /usr/sbin/ethtool -s eno1 wol g
          • post-down /usr/sbin/ethtool -s eno1 wol g

2. Use a WoL client

   • Windows
     • GUI
       • From MS Store search for any WoL or MagicPacket client e.g. https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9wzdncrcw1mx (tested by me on Windows 10/11)
       • https://github.com/basildane/WakeOnLAN/releases/tag/2.12.4 (tested by me on Win 10)
     • PowerShell
       • https://gist.github.com/alimbada/4949168
       • You can make a shortcut in windows
   • Linux
     • GUI
       • https://github.com/muflone/gwakeonlan/ (also from App Center) (tested by me on Ubuntu 24)
       • Ampare Wake on LAN (from App Center) (did not open on my Ubuntu also size too big ~109MB)
     • Terminal
       • wakeonlan (tested by me on Ubuntu 24)
         • sudo apt install wakeonlan
         • wakeonlan <mac address of the server>

Parental Controls

This is for basic controls and won't prevent 100% kids to "misbehave" or accidentally view/access something unrelated for their age. You should actively check on them and discuss these matters as you do with any topic in a family. If it makes the kids a little bit safer - do it!

Windows:

1. Create a family on Microsoft Safety
2. Add all family members
   • Configure for each the security needed (e.g. allowed gaming time, blocked apps)
3. On the Windows thin client and same for VMs:
   1. sign in with your parent account (it should be the Admin) and set a PIN for it. Do not share it with the kids (otherwise it's a useless setup and you can just set the kid as Admin).
   2. Go to Windows Settings > Accounts > Family > Select the family members that can log in. Do not add separate accounts in another way as it won't let you manage them through MS Family Safety app!
   3. Sign out and sign in to the child account. It will ask to create a PIN - use another PIN and share with the child or let the kid create it's own.
4. On the Windows thin client have nothing but
5. For browsing safety use Edge and log in with child account. Block installation of other apps without your consent or PIN this way they can't install other browsers where they are not signed in with their user.
6. Install the Family Safety app on your smartphone or use the web page above to manage or view security risks, add time etc.
7. For YouTube
   1. Create a family on Google Account > People & sharing > Your Family on Google or visit Google Families Homepage and click on Get Started.
   2. Each child gets a google account and you as a parent manage the family. You can add spouse as well as family manager.
   3. Configure for each child the safety settings.
   4. In the Edge log them into their Google account and visit YouTube and make sure it's logged in.
   5. (Optionally) Install an add block extension for Edge
   6. (Optionally) Install an YouTube layout changing extension for Edge (e.g. Enhancer for YouTube) and remove Shorts (I hate those things and think they are not good for anyone and more so for the kids)

Network / Router

For generic safety, if your router supports it - enable child profiles for each VM and the thin client device. On a Fritz!Box it is located under Internet>Filter>Child Security. I also created my own list of websites to be blocked in addition to the already installed and managed by the German Government (BPjM-Module from BzKJ).

Templates & Scripts

(WIP - details of proxmox templates or repo for automation. What each do and what are the parameters/configuration etc.)

Demo & Video

(WIP)

Support & Sponsorship

Buy me and my kids some tea and get gratitude and private support from us :)

Tests & Benchmarks

Games tests

Test setup :

• same game and version running actively (someone is playing it stressing the GPU at max possibility) on 2 VMs in parallel (at the same time)
• maximum graphic quality in game settings
• FHD / 1080p
• One Monitor per thin client
• Where you see host and client metric it means that host is the server and client is the thin client. For FPS you just take the lowest value from these 2 as that is the bottleneck.

Parsec limits FPS to 60

One VM summary/load during the game tests, hour (maximum):

Server summary/load during the game tests, hour (maximum):

Fishing Planet

• lag - none
• FPS - 60

Minecraft Bedrock/Java

• lag - none
• FPS - 60

In some mods with JAVA with Curseforge it jitters when moving but that I think is not from the proxBi (this guide) setup.

Jurassic World Evolution

• lag - none
• FPS host - 33 (30.06ms per frame)
• FPS client - 191 (5.21ms per frame)

Counter-Strike 2 (CS2)

• lag - none
• FPS - 60
• Anti Cheat - OK

War Thunder

• lag - critical, playable only on Low settings. However, Naval battle and any tutorial works on highest settings with no lag.
• FPS - 5
• Anti Cheat - OK

Fortnite

• lag - N/A
• FPS - N/A
• Anti Cheat - KO

Apex

• lag - N/A
• FPS - N/A
• Anti Cheat - KO

Brawlhalla

• lag - none
• FPS host - 62 (15.93ms per frame)
• FPS client - 114 (8.74ms per frame)
• Anti Cheat - OK

3D BenchMarks

On one VM at a time

TBD

On 2 VMs simultaneously

TBD

3D Engines and Tools

3DS MAX

TBD

Unreal Engine Editor

• lag - TBD
• FPS - TBD

Unity Editor

• lag - TBD
• FPS - TBD

Bonus

This is how our server looks like.

Build specs:

Server

• MB: ASUS TUF GAMING B650-PLUS Mainboard Socket AMD AM5 - this one has 2 PCIE slots , one with PCI5 x16 and one PCI4 x4 . Therefore be careful what GPU you load into it as the second one might get capped. Or buy another MB that supports multiple PICE at x16.
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7900 12 Cores 24 Threads
• RAM: Patriot Viper Xtreme 5 DDR5 RAM 32GB (2X16GB) 6000MT/s CL30
• GPU: 2 x Nvidia RTX 2060 6GB (bought used)
• Storage:
  • SSD (for proxmox/host OS) - 256GB (had one from a laptop)
  • NVME (for VMs) - 1TB Samsung 990 EVO Plus
• PSU: Thermaltake Toughpower GT 850W
• Case: NZXT H7 Flow

Clients

Mini PC (bought used ones)

• MB:
• CPU: Intel 6200U 2.3GHz (recommend something newer that supports Win11)
• RAM: 8GB
• GPU: Intel HD 5500 4GB (integrated in the CPU)
• Storage:
  • SSD: 256GB
• Network: Ethernet 1Gbps
• Monitor: FHD 24"
• OS: Windows 11 Home

Here are some examples of mini-PCs that should work (I did not test them just matched the specs and watched for cost, make sure it works with your Monitor and other setup before buying! Some are refurbished):

• HP 18 cm Silent Mini PC Business Office Multimedia Computer | Intel®Pentium® 4400T 2x2.90GHz | 8GB DDR4 | 256GB SSD | USB3 | Windows 11 Prof
• Lenovo Mini PC Desktop Computer ThinkCentre M93p USDT Tiny Intel Core i5 240GB SSD 8GB Windows 11 Pro
• Fujitsu Fast Mini PC with Intel Quad Core Silent Desktop Computer + Multimedia Calculator up to 2.8 GHz 8GB DDR4 RAM 128GB SSD Including Win 11 Pro

*Links have affiliate id that bring me some commission in case you purchase.